Chesapeake Bay group asks Obama administration to back cleanup bill

Chesapeake Bay advocates hope to use a communication line to President Barack Obama to urge support for federal legislation aimed at cleaning up the prized, polluted estuary.

The call for action comes as state and federal officials attended a meeting Tuesday of the Chesapeake Bay Executive Council in Arlington, Va.

EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson assumed the chairmanship of the panel, which comprises the governors of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia, the mayor of Washington, D.C., the EPA administrator and the chairman of the Chesapeake Bay Commission, a tri-state panel that addresses Bay issues.

In a Dec. 30 letter to Jackson, Chesapeake Bay Foundation President William C. Baker asked the new chairwoman to urge Obama to endorse the Chesapeake Clean Water and Ecosystem Restoration Act introduced by Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D) of Pikesville and U.S. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Dist. 7) of Baltimore.

The bill sets a 2025 deadline for implementing pollution-reduction strategies and gives the EPA greater enforcement authority under the Clean Water Act.

"We think the [Cardin and Cummings] bill is a great opportunity to really forward Bay restoration and provide accountability and consequences for failure which have not been in place," said Beth McGee, a senior water quality scientist with the foundation.

Baker's letter asks Jackson to work with executive council members to create a "federally enforceable, regional pollution budget for the Chesapeake Bay watershed" that includes state-specific and watershed-wide limits on pollution.

In May, Obama signed an executive order charging the EPA and other federal agencies with oversight of the Bay to develop cleanup plans.